2011-2012 Annual Report - Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for ...

2011-12 learning from Practice conference
Learning From Practice is the McDowell Foundation’s annual exchange of teacher
knowledge and research. The conference is organized for the Foundation by SPDU –
Professional Growth Partnerships and is held in Saskatoon in late November.
The November 24, 2012 exchange began by acknowledgement of Saskatchewan’s
unprecedented population growth, particularly as it relates to newcomers from other
corners of the world. This situation is presenting a whole new set of challenges for
schools in the province and in her keynote speech, Linda Wason-Ellam shared her views
on the topic of teaching English in multilingual classrooms. She cited the importance of
embracing the social and cultural capital that these new students bring, and making
them feel more comfortable by not focusing strictly on the instruction of English at the
expense of their own language. She has also found that storyboards, drawings and
rubrics are helpful teaching aids, which can often contribute more than words.
A panel of community groups involved with a family literacy research project presented
their views on literacy and provided many examples of programming available to
English as an additional language (EAL) learners. The conference also offered many other
concurrent presentations, including two groups presenting the results of their research
into learning through inquiry.
pAge 12 AnnuAl RepoRt 2011-12